The First Steps
Honestly, this whole thing kicked off ’cause my nephew wouldn’t shut up about Aussie Rules Football. He swore blind it was tougher than rugby ’cause of the hits. Me? I thought rugby was the king of crunch. So yesterday afternoon, I grabbed my buddy Dave – he played rugby in college – and headed down to the empty high school field. My bright idea? We’d try out the tackling rules for both, proper like. See what really felt rougher.
Kicking Off with Football Tackles
We started with what I thought I knew: gridiron tackling. No pads, just jeans and t-shirts, keepin’ it simple. Dave took the ball first. Rules: gotta wrap up, head must stay up and to the side, aim for the waist or lower, avoid that head contact like the plague. Simple, right? Yeah, nah. Trying to drive through someone with pure shoulder impact without leading with the noggin feels… unnatural. My shoulder slammed into his thigh hard. Felt jarring. He went down, but I felt the sting shoot right up my collarbone. Hurt him too? He grimaced, rubbed his leg hard, but stayed quiet. “Legal hit,” he mumbled. More like a solid wallop.
Switching Gears to Rugby Rules
Next, rugby’s turn. Felt weirdly different. Rules flipped: the tackler has to wrap, almost like a big bear hug. Shoulder contact? Sure, but can’t just blast them. Gotta bind your arms around ’em. Dave explained it clearly: aim’s still below the shoulders, but it’s more a controlled collapse than a demolition derby hit. We practiced wrapping him shoulder-to-hip first, like tackling a tackling dummy. Then he ran at me with the ball. Instead of just sticking my shoulder out, I had to step in, get close, wrap my arms around his waist, and use my legs and back to pull him down with me. Went down together, kinda tangled. Felt heavy. Intense pressure on my arms and chest. Took my breath away for a sec.
Comparing the Crunch
Standing there after, both panting and bruised, it hit us:
- Football Tackling: Felt like slammed into a brick wall built into a moving truck. Sharp, focused impact point (shoulder/chest). Jarring. Made us wobble. Instant sore spots where contact was made.
- Rugby Tackling: Felt like getting swallowed by a freight train built out of pillows – pillows filled with cement. Whole-body pressure. Crushing feeling on the chest and arms. Less sharp sting initially, but deeper fatigue and ache, especially in the muscles used to cling on and pull down. Controlled chaos.
The Unexpected Aftermath
The real surprise came the next morning. That gridiron shoulder hit? Left me with a definite, sharp, localized ache right where I made contact. Couldn’t lift my arm above my shoulder without wincing. The rugby tackles? Man, my whole upper body felt like I’d wrestled a bear. Chest muscles, arms, back – everything felt tender and deeply worked over. Like a full-body workout gone wrong. Big soreness, widespread fatigue.
The Rough Truth?
My hands-on verdict? Calling one “rougher” depends where you point the lens.
- That single, explosive, smash of a football tackle delivers a brutal, focused shock. One moment, boom, jarring, potential for immediate injury at that point.
- The rugby tackle? More like sustained pressure. It’s a grinding technique. Intense full-body engagement, less about an instant blast, more about control bringing immense whole-body fatigue and deep-set muscle aches after. Feels like it wears you down.
Rougher? Both just felt like different kinds of awful. Footy tackling feels like getting hit by a car. Rugby tackling feels like the car then folds around you. Glad we tried it, arms are still screaming, wouldn’t recommend it!